Last week we went from frosty Minnesota to the beaches of South Carolina! For the 8th year, Beach RC has hosted its famous race, Masters of Dirt! The Masters of Dirt is an event where drivers must compete in 4wd Buggy, 2wd Buggy, and Stadium Truck to be in the running for the overall Master of Dirt Title! There is a Modified Master Title and a Stock Master title. Beach RC is located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and is an awesome facility! They have everything you might need for your RC program. They have a fully stocked hobby shop, plenty of pitting, and a dialed off-road track. They also semi-recently took on the Badlands 1:8 Off-Road Outdoor Track. They will be hosting the annual Fall Brawl race in about a month! BeachRC also has a huge e-commerce site and travels to many of the large 1:8 races with their pop-up shop!
The track layout was fun to race on and sprinkled with challenging sections! The most challenging section appeared to be the steps going up toward the back. As for tires, the team used the trusty old Smoothie 2s in Silver. They also mounted them on mono wheels as well as experimented with RM2 hard foam, dirt-tech inserts, and sidewall support adaptors. We also tested the new JConcepts Stadium Truck Smoothie 2 Tires, which you’ll learn more about in a video with Spencer Rivkin soon! Drivers really enjoy being able to go to any 1:10th scale event and have tires ready to go! No more sanding down slicks! As for the event schedule, we had practice on Thursday and part of Friday. On Friday they used the afternoon to complete one round of seeding and round one of qualifying. Friday night also consisted of the Fireball Challenge! Saturday we completed two more rounds of qualifying. Sunday was the main event day in addition to their Dash for Cash races and their signature hooligan race! The hooligan race will be shared on our YouTube channel, but ultimately there are a ton of obstacles all over the track and the last car standing wins. There are no marshals for this event, which makes it the last-man-standing type of race! The winner also won $1200! 
View the Full Photo Gallery Here.
Qualifying (Best 2 of 3):
Open 2wd Buggy: Alex McClellan (2), Dave McEwen (3), Dustin Spallone (4), Kyle Paquette (5)
13.5 Stadium Truck: Doug Lariviere (5)
Modified Stadium Truck: Spencer Rivkin (1), Dakotah Phend (2)
13.5 4wd Buggy: Doug Lariviere (2)
17.5 2wd Buggy: Doug Lariviere (3)
2wd Short Course: Josh Parrish (1), Patrick Rossiter (2), Alex McMclellan (3), Dave McEwen (5)
40+ 2wd Buggy: Chris VanAir (2), Paul Wynn (3),
4wd Modified Buggy: Dakotah Phend (1), Spencer Rivkin (2),
2wd Modified Buggy: Spencer Rivkin (1), Dakotah Phend (2)
40+ 4wd Buggy: Chris VanAir (1), Dave McEwen (5)
Final Results:
Open 2wd Buggy: Dustin Spallone (2), Kyle Paquette (3), Alex MacClellan (5)
13.5 Stadium Truck: Doug Lariviere (4)
Modified Stadium Truck: Spencer Rivkin (2)
Spencer Rivkin led the way after securing the TQ in Modified Stadium Truck. Phend was running 2nd, handing on to Rivkin. Phend caught the pipe a couple of laps into the race which gave Rivkin some breathing room. Evans moved into 2nd. About halfway through the race Rivkin and Evans were rolling through the bowl turn when Rivkin got caught on the pipe a bit and Evans took over the lead. Evans led for a few more laps while Rivkin chased behind. Shortly after they went over the front double Evans left the slightest gap which Rivkin tried to squeeze his truck through and succeeded! Rivkin held on to the lead for another handful of laps. In the final two laps of the race, Rivkin got a little unstable over that same front double and Evans got by into the lead. Luckily, Rivkin already set himself up to earn the overall title, so a 2nd place finish didn’t hurt him!
13.5 4wd Buggy: Doug Lariviere (3)
17.5 2wd Buggy: Doug Lariviere (3)
2wd Short Course: Alex McClellan (1), Dave McEwen (4), Josh Parrish (5)
40+ 2wd Buggy: Chris VanAir (2), Paul Wynn (3), Dave McEwen (5)
4wd Modified Buggy: Dakotah Phend (1), Spencer Rivkin (3)
Dakotah Phend led the way in the 4wd Modified Buggy A-Main. It was a single 10-minute A-Main event and Phend led from start to finish. Spencer Rivkin started 2nd and Aydin Horne started 3rd. Rivkin held on to Phend’s wing straight from the tone. Halfway through the top 4 remained the same: Phend, Rivkin, Horne, and Evans. 3 minutes left in the race, Rivkin went over the challenging step up, made the turn to go down, and accidentally rolled over, but he was able to maintain his 2nd place. At this point, Phend had created a solid lead. Meanwhile, Rivkin and Horne were battling hard for 2nd. They were essentially side by side. They went up the step up on the next lap and Horne sent it and landed right in front of Rivkin. A gutsy move. However, Rivkin was right on his wing and still in the fight. The race concluded with Phend taking the win!
2wd Modified Buggy: Spencer Rivkin (1), Dakotah Phend (2), Lee Setser (4)
The 2wd Modified Buggy A-Main was a 10-minute race and Rivkin led the way after taking the TQ. Phend started 2nd, Cavalieri started 3rd, and Sontag started 4th. Shortly into the race, Phend went a little wide and Cavalieri got by into 2nd. Not long after Cavalieri got caught on the pipe going up the step up, Phend took back 2nd and Sontag was in 3rd. Two more laps went by and Sontag was able to make a pass on Phend and moved into 2nd. About halfway through, Cavalieri fell back to 6th, Setser worked his way up from 10th to 5th, and Horne was sitting 4th. They were together in a group while Phend and Sontag created a decent amount of space. There were 4 more minutes left in the race and Phend got by Sontag back into 2nd. 3 minutes left in the race Horne had a mistake and Setser got by into 4th! He was guarding his lines and trying to hang on while a 5-car train followed behind him. Meanwhile, Rivkin had been leading since the starting tone. The race concluded as Rivkin, Phend, Sontag, and Setser.
40+ 4wd Buggy: Chris VanAir (2), Jason Westfall (4)
Congratulations again to Spencer Rivkin on winning his first Master of Dirt Title in the modified division! We also would like to thank Brent Densford for hosting an extraordinary event and building such an awesome facility. We saw a lot of great results from the JConcepts team this weekend and we’re proud of the entire team! Up next, is the Team Associated Race at Trackside!
Winning Products:
RM2 Inserts
F2 Body
S2 Body
P2 Body
Finnisher Body
HF2 Short Course Body
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